Monday, January 7, 2013

My first projects of 2013 happen to be my first craft love, cards. I have a few January birthdays. Proud mom moment when your College age child asks when you’ll be making the thank you notes he needs to write for Christmas presents.

I am on a mission this year to, if not craft SOLELY from my stash ( hear that Mr. Chocolate…I did not say I was not going to my homes away from home so you cannot quote me on that no way no how) but to bust a lot of it. So everything I’m showing here I already had in my stash.

For the first card ( above) I used a watch themed paper by Recollections. This paper is so great I hardly needed to add anything to it. But we can’t have that now can we? I ran a piece of kraft cardstock through my Cuttlebug using a Tim Holtz Alterations embossing folder.

I distressed my embossed watch panel with Tim’s ( we’re on a first name basis even though we’ve never met) Distressed Inks in Black Soot and some mica gloss inks in silver. Added a couple of sprocket gears , also from Tim’s line.

For the second card, I used a paper pack from EK Success “Life’s Little Occasions” line. I picked up a bunch few of these at JoAnn’s on one of my trips…they come in coordinated color packs and they also have sticker sets in themes like birthdays, anniversaries, etc. They’re usually in little bins on the scrapbook paper or sticker aisle (this one’s called Black Punch Pack) and they’re great for bits and pieces or scrapbook journaling. Sorry…forgot to take a pic of the pack!

Pulled out three different pieces and added a black mat. The silver ribbon? Recycled from Christmas wrapping.

The tag in the middle is by Jolee’s Boutique French General line. Picked up a pack of these last year when they were 50% off. I embellished with another piece from my Life’s Little Occasions pack, and some leftover rub-ons.

For College Boy’s thank-you notes, I pulled out these fun black and white cards I picked up for $1 at Michaels some time last year. They’re by “Ditto / Studio G” and I know they still carry a bunch of their stuff at reasonable prices because I have had to force myself to keep walking past them! See? I can be good.

On another prior Michaels trip, I’d scooped up a bunch of vintage rub-ons in their then $1 section. College Boy likes things clean and not fussy so I kept these really simple and just applied them directly to the cards.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Welcome back to another Workshop Wednesday! I hope you’re getting lots of good ideas to get ahead of the holidays. If you’re following the hop, thanks for coming over from Mine For The Making!

This week’s project: Gift Tags.

You shop for, make , and wrap gifts. Then if you’re like me, you forget or run out of time for the tags. I have been known to be making a last minute tag on Christmas morning. Not this year!

This week I’ll show you how to be ready AND bust some scrap stash. If you work with scrapbook paper for any reason, you’ve likely got scraps.

Or you’ll tell me you do so I feel better. My scraps have scraps. I went to my scrap stash and pulled a bunch of coordinating colors out. I also remembered to pick up some blank tags when they were 50% off at JoAnn’s. I spent less than $5 for both packages…40 tags.

Other options: tags from the office supply store , cut your own with a die cutter, or using a template.

You can use whatever kind of adhesive you have (tape runner, glue stick, double sided tape etc.). I have um, several sizes of the Xyron adhesive machines. I used the 5 inch one to apply adhesive to my tags. In a stroke of pure genius luck the two sizes of tags I had fit side by side.

Peel your sticky tags off of the backing paper and then attch to the underside of your paper. Trim around your tags. Cover your entire tag and then grab some more scraps and tear, glue, trim ….whatever you feel like. A great way to use smaller pieces up.

I save my vinyl scraps too because I just know there’s something I can use them for. Too small for your electronic cutter. Go old school: PUNCHES! I used a snowflake punch and a Martha Stewart “JOY” border punch.

I may have a slight problem with self adhesive rhinestones, pearls etc. I know I never use all of any one package so I have a stash of partially used ones. Out they came for the tags! Washi tape too.

There’s no rhyme or reason to these, just kind of wing it. I had some self adhesive scrapbook borders from other projects. Threw some of those on too.

Got buttons? The stockings and lights on a couple of the tags are buttons from my button stash. Basically if it’s small enough to fit on a tag…

Went over the swirl pattern on this paper scrap with iridescent Stickles glitter glue and then stuck clear rhinesones on the ends. Tore off pieces of washi tape and stuck them.

Here’s one important thing to remember. I wait until I know I’m completely done adding papers, tape etc. to my tags to punch holes. That way you punch through all the layers you’ve used cleanly and only one time.

To finish, I used some ribbon yarn I had on hand. So if you’ve got paper, you’ve likely got scraps. If you’ve got scraps, you’ve got the makings for gift tags! Hope this gave you an idea you can put to use.

Friday, May 28, 2010

I'm on pillow/flower kick. OK, I'm on a "I make stuff" kick, and the point of having a blog is to , well, blog about the stuff right? I had some "I know I'll use it someday" fabric in my stash and it went well with the colors of the other pillows I recently made and I still had some scraps left from the dress I cut up. So I created a monogram using a desktop publishing program ( Printshop Deluxe) and decided to add the year we were married. Printed that on transfer paper ( don't forget to reverse the image!) and ironed it to a linen dress scrap:

I wanted a casual shabby look so I top stitched it to a flour sack towel panel and then to the pillow top. I didn't care about the linen or flour sack panel edges being finished because I wanted a ragged look. Sewed the rest of the pillow cover together and stuffed it w/ a 14x14 pillow form.

Being flower crazy, I made four black organza flowers with centers made from scraps of the fabric I used to make the pillow. Here's the finished product:

It's hard to see in the picture but I pulled threads on both the linen and flour sack panels to fray them.

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Unless otherwise credited, all projects are those of The Answer Is Chocolate. Please link back etc. and I will always do the same for any projects I feature that are from other sources. Thanks a bunch!